Sunday, November 20, 2011

In March I ran across a post on runblogger.com about the Brooks Pure Project. As I was training for my Potentially Painful Summer I was contemplating what shoe I would use for tacking all these 100 mile races. I wanted a shoe that had a minimal upper, less than 4mm heel/toe differential and sufficient cushioning and protection to run 100 miles. The Brooks Pure Grit grabbed my attention. On paper it looked like the perfect candidate.

I did everything I could to get a pair of pre-production shoes, but I just couldn't make it happen. Finally early last month I got my hands on a pair of them. Because I like lots of room for my toes I normally buy a size 11 in my running shoes, even though my foot measures more in the range of 10-10.5. I got a pair of 11's and did a few short runs before my run across NH. The shoes were simply to large for me, but since I did end up wearing them for over 40 miles of paved roads that day. They turned out to be a really good road shoe with sufficient protection for long pavement runs.

A few weeks ago I ended up giving them to my younger brother, who loved them. I bought a pair of 10.5's which fit my entire foot much better. I used them for pacing my friend Adam for the last 32 miles of the Pinhoti 100. I was in them for 10 hours. I then used them last weekend for a 28 mile run that consisted mostly of pavement, but also had 15 miles of rocky rail trail.

I never encountered anything that technical during either one of those runs, besides some rocky single track at Pinhoti. So when Pete from runblogger.com asked me to do a shoe review I decided that I better try them for a more technical run to better analyse them. So this morning I headed out on a 15 mile trail run on the local snowmobile trails to put them through their paces.

I started with a mile of paved roads before I ducked into some of my favorite trails. The trails were rocky and covered with leaves for the first couple of miles until I hit my first steep climb. As I continued with the run I threw everything I could at them. One thing I hadn't tested yet was their ability to drain. I am glad to report that I ran through every waterhole, stream and puddle that I could and these shoes are remarkable at shedding water quickly.

Post-run. Ended up in a swamp buried up to my crotch. All in the name of testing drainage...

I am a little bit mixed on my feeling on the traction. I actually ended up ass over teakettle when I tried hit an off camber section. The side traction isn't awesome.

Unique traction pattern.

I had no trouble with normal climbing and descending. Over the course of the run I encountered loose leaves, pavement, rocks, mud, sand, water, swamps and nice sticky single track. I even ended up stuck in a swampy bog up to my crotch. It only looked like a puddle...

All that being said, here are my personal Pro's and Con's of these shoes.

CONS

Toebox. I'm not sure if I have unusual shaped feet, but the toebox in the big toe area is very pointed. It looks like it has been extended, perhaps to fit in the Brooks cameltoe thingy. To illustrate my point, here is a picture of my feet on the footbeds. Because of the rapid slope of the toebox my outside two toes end up rubbing slightly against the front of the shoe.

I wore socks to spare you the horror that are my bare feet.

Arch support. I have become very use to shoes that don't have arch support. As a result I no longer have PF. The arch support in this shoe has started to aggrevate it. Not a good thing.

Too much arch support for my tastes.

Nav Band. It just doesn't do anything. I do have a low volume forefoot, so perhaps those of you with weird gangly tall forefeet will love it. For me it is simply a nice place to tuck in the long laces.

Nav Band is too loose to do anything.

Overall Fit. They don't wrap around my feet the way some of my favorite shoes do. The New Balance MT110 is still the gold standard which I measure all trail shoes against as far as fit. The Grits allow my foot to twist in the shoe when side traversing. Its not severe, but it is still there.

Comparison in shapes. PG insole, NB MT110, my foot.

PROS

Cushioning. The BioMoGo sole does a great job of protecting your feet, offering lots of cushioning, while still being flexible.

Great cushioning, low heel rise, incredible draining powers

Minimal heel rise. The forefoot/heel delta is only 4mm. This allows a nice neutral mid/forefoot stride.

Drainage. This is one of the quickest draining and drying shoes that I have ever used. The uppers material is excellent at shedding water.

Overall Usability. If I could only have one pair of shoes (God forbid) these would probably be the ones. They have enough cushioning to run 40 miles of roads. They have enough protection to run rocky trails. They drain well enough to run in mud and muck all day and they allow for and encourage a midfoot stride.

I'd really like to see this shoe have less (or none) arch support and a more rounded toebox. For now, those few flaws aren't enough to keep my feet out of them.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

It was now 6pm as Team Robert gathered up their gear I said my goodbye's and thank you's to my family. It was starting to get cold and the sun was rapidly setting. I was really sad to see my family go, but at the same time I felt like I hit a milestone by reaching the hand off point for the last section of the run. Only 50 miles to go!

Hoka Bondi B - my "Clown Shoes"

I changed into my Hoka Bondi B shoes. My Brooks Pure Grits had worked great for the last 40 miles, but I was just looking forward to the extra cushioning that the Hoka's give. We said goodbye to the girls, and then Josh and I took off down the Goffstown rail trail. As we ran into the dark I felt a sense of relief to be running with somebody. Our conversation flowed like water and I was very thankful to be running with Josh. We marveled at the trails steep drop off and my shin was feeling much better since changing shoes. I was very optimistic that this would be the year that I finished the run!

Goffstown Rail Trail during the day.

By the time we finished the rail trail and headed into Manchester it was a little before 8pm. I was in great spirits and running with Josh was really helping the time fly by. As we ran though the upper village towards the bridge we joked about how nuts we looked. As people walked into stores they seemed a little confused by seeing two guys with backpacks, reflective gear and headlights running through town.

When we hit the long hill going away from town up Bridge street we decided to just walk. I had forgotten how steep that hill gets! Again I struggled with having patience. It seemed like it was taking forever to get up that hill. As we got near the top the moon was incredible. It was almost full and it was HUGE. It really looked like the moon was sitting on top of the hill. Little things like that really distract me from how my body feels when doing a big run like this. I try to appreciate those moments as much as possible and when I do I kind of forget the physical pain for a moment.

Loni and Leah

As we got to the top of the hill Leah was ready with food and drink. I hung out there for a while and was getting pretty tired. Grant decided to run with me for a while and Josh took a break. I had only met Grant once. Last year in the winter all of us ran the Goffstown rail trail together. Grant is a really nice guy, full of enthusiasm for running. As we made our way over to the rail trail we got to know each other more and talked about shoes a lot. It turns out that he reads my blog and knew a lot of things about my life from it.

Grant

I was getting more and more tired and I don't think that Grant had ever been with somebody who has already run almost 70 miles. I was getting grumpy which anybody in my situation goes through. At one point I said something about getting tired or my feet hurting...who knows...and Grant said something like "Don't worry my job is to just keep you going". For whatever reason I snapped back at him and said "No...that's not your job! This isn't a race and I don't need anybody to keep me going!"

Things got a little quiet after that. This is why I've stopped using pacers in races this year. When you run all day and night you get raw. As much as you would like not to, you sometimes just don't have the energy to control what comes out of your mouth. I felt bad later when I found out that Grant said something to Josh about it. Josh laughed and told him that was part of the deal when you help somebody do something like this. In Ultras there is a saying that Crew stands for Cranky Runner Endless Waiting. It's a tough job.

Rail Trail during the day

I got to the entrance of the Rockingham Rail trail a little past 9pm. I was really looking forward to getting off the pavement for the next 25 miles. As I sat in a chair I realized that my feet were killing me. My shin was killing me and I was just plain tired. I was getting grumpy, and had long stopped even trying to be polite. Everybody helping was awesome, offering me food, refilling my bottles, etc.. I was really glad to have them along.

Rail Trail in the winter

Finally I headed out on the rail trail. I had only seen the trail in the winter so I had no idea what type of surface it was going to be. I should have expected the obvious. It was mostly crushed stone....like a rail trail, duh. Loni had taken over for Grant, but was riding a bicycle. She is a great person to have on an endeavor like this. She could tell when I didn't feel like talking and was content enough just riding with me. When I did feel like talking the conversation flowed easily. I was psyched to have the protection of the Hoka shoes on this surface and knew I had made the right choice with wearing them.

Unfortunately after a couple of miles we came upon an area that was completely flooded out. There was no way around it. I didn't know what to do because the Hokas are terrible when wet. They don't drain well. Until now my feet had been dry all day and I had no blisters. Hindsight being 20/20 I should have just ridden Loni's bike across or even taken my shoes off. But I just dove in and walked through it.

It wasn't 5 minutes later that the blisters started. Now I was getting bummed out. I still had about 40 miles to go and needed to do something to make sure they didn't become a problem. But I really wanted the protection of the Hokas. At this point there was nothing that I could do. In a couple of miles we saw the crew at one of the road crossings and I changed shoes. But here is where I made a stupid decision. Since I was worried about blisters I put on my best fitting shoes, the new New Balance MT110's. They fit awesome, but offer almost no cushioning or protection.

New Balance MT110's

As soon as we headed back out on the trail I knew I had made a mistake. I decided to just suck it up and thought that things would get better as I adapted to them. I felt every single rock on every single step. Now my feet hurt really, really bad. No, I mean really bad. I slowed down for a bit, walking more than running.
Josh had joined me and Loni at the last stop and once again our conversation had lifted my spirits. I decided to put on my music. As soon as I did I felt better. I took off and caught Josh by surprise. I was singing and they were laughing at me. Josh and I did a rendition of The Greatest Song in the World by Tenacious D. It was ironic because Sherpa John and I had sung the same song on our first RANH.

Josh, smiling as usual

As Josh and Loni were commenting on how I had come back to life I explained to them that this is usually what happens to me in a 100 mile race. But in a unfortunate prediction of what was to come I also said, "who knows, I feel good now but I might blow up spectacularly not that far down the road". About a mile later I was walking again. My feet started hurting so badly that I was shuffling along extremely slowly. I was looking at the side of the trail for a place to sit. All I wanted to do was to get off my feet.

I started getting really impatient. Josh had been calling ahead to the crew truck to find out how much further we had to go before we could see them. I had to get out of these shoes. I looked at my watch and couldn't believe how short of a distance I had gone in the last hour. Finally we came to a place that I could sit. The pain in my feet was incredible. Grant biked to us from the truck with my Brooks Pure Grits, which I had used earlier with a lot of success.

Brooks Pure Grit

After a short break and the change of shoes my feel felt better, but I was still moving slowly. I was also freezing because I had slowed down so much. At 1:15am we saw the support truck again. It had taken me 4 hours to go 11 miles, but in my sleep deprived brain I did the math wrong and thought that it had taken me 4.5 hours to go 5 miles. That was enough for me to feel overwhelmed. I got into the warm truck and tried to stop shivering uncontrollably. After a few minutes the crew checked on my to see how I was doing. I told them that I was done. 80 miles was a good day and I felt fortunate to have the opportunity to run all day with the help of my friends and family.

I didn't feel bad at all about calling it quits at that point. I had achieved exactly what I had been after. I was looking for an adventure and to see NH in a way that I had never seen it before. Not only did that happen, but I was once again reminded how much love and support I have in my life. You just can't be in a bad mood or upset when you have that.

Sunrise over the Ocean at the finish

Last Saturday night, at midnight, Josh, Leah, Loni and I drove out to the place where I called it quits and finished the run. It took five and half hours to go the last 28 miles and I had an incredible time running through the night. As I watched the sun rise over the ocean I was again overcome with how fortunate I am to have the friends and family that I do. Thank you to everybody who helped me during my Potentially Painful Summer.

Monday, November 14, 2011

I just looked at the blog and it's been 15 days since I wrote the Part I story of the Run Across NH. It has been weighing heavily on my thoughts. Business is crazy, which is good, and I am in the process of working on opening a new shop, moving the software company forward and working on a speech for the Concord Rotary about the Potentially Painful Summer.

Hopefully I will write up the conclusion to the RANH within the next week. The short story is that I only made it 81 miles and stopped at 1:15 in the morning. This last Saturday I finished the last 28 miles of the run and had a blast. I'll get all the details to the blog soon, I just wanted to touch base with my many (tens....) of readers!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Saturday, October 15 marked the third time I have attempted to run across the length of NH at its widest point. The first time, in 2008 I ended up stopping about 70 miles in as a result of a stress fracture. Although I had decided that trying to 124 miles of pavement was stupid I was there again in 2009 to try again. This time I bailed about 65 miles in knowing that I was headed down the same road towards another stress fracture.

First year, trying to fix what eventually became a stress fracture.

In 2010 my friend Sherpa John decided that he was going to attempt it through rugged mt trails and I just was to busy to attempt it with him.

Originally the "Potentially Painful Summer" was going to be an attempt to run 4 100 mile races in 4 months. Shortly after conceiving the idea I decided that it would be the icing on top of the cake to finally complete a run across NH. I knew that it would be hard but that is why I decided to attempt it. Little did I know what my body and mind would feel like by the time I got to that point in the year. Good thing I didn't have a clue.

The one thing that I was never crazy about for the RANH (Run Across New Hampshire) was the route. It has always gone from Route 9 in Brattleboro to Route 4 to the final destination at the Seacoast Science Center in Rye NH. It is basically a highway. A few weeks before the run I decided that I was going to change the route to reflect more what I hoped to see for this journey. From the start John and I had talked about this run as an opportunity to see NH from a different perspective than what you would see in a car. That sounds so much better to me! So I plugged in the starting point and the ending point into google maps, clicked the "walk" button and it came up with a route of back roads and routes that I have never seen. It even incorporated 24 miles of the Rockingham Rail trail, which I have run once in the winter.

View Larger Map
In the week before the race Amy and I drove the first 45 miles of the route and I even marked the road with arrows so I wouldn't get lost. Once I saw where I was going to be running I became even more excited. It was as good as I hoped it would be. Many of the roads were deep back roads and some were even dirt. A lot of them ran along rivers and streams and the fall foliage is in full bloom.

One of the biggest obstacles to doing a run like this is figuring out how I am going to get support. When you run all day and night there are certain things that you need to keep going. Like food and drink. For long runs like this I need to consume 300-500 calories an hour. That's not easy to take care of without good support (or a HUGE backpack...) You also need somebody to help you get through the many possible problems that can happen like fixing blisters and changing shoes/clothing. Months before the run I was at my friend Sherpa Johns going away party. I was seated with Josh, Loni and Leah, also known as Team Robert.

I had just posted about my idea for the Potentially Painful Summer and they had read that I was going to once again try the RANH. They told me that they were absolutely on board with helping me out and wouldn't miss it for the world. I didn't even ask them, they volunteered.

I was blown away at their reaching out to help me. I have become friends with all three over the years, but still was humbled by their willingness to give up a weekend to help a cranky guy run 110 miles of pavement. When the time came to help they were a huge positive influence on the run. Also helping out would be my friend Adam and of course my biggest fans, my family. The plan was for Adam to start, hand me off to Amy for the majority of Saturday and Team Robert to take me through to the end.

Adam Wilcox

On Saturday morning Adam and I left the house at 3:45 and drove to the bridge at the NH/VT border in Brattleboro. At 5:02 I took off. The plan was for Adam to drive up 5 miles and wait. The weather was excellent and my body felt great. I worked extra hard to go slowly. The plan was to conserve as much energy as possible so that I could have as much energy at the end. The plan was also to not tax myself like I would do if it was a race. I was determined to go against my normal tendencies and just enjoy the day. It took me exactly an hour to catch up with Adam the first time. There are some pretty big hills in that first 5 miles and I walked them even though I didn't need to. I was already starting to wonder why it took me so long and I caught myself and let it all go. Pace just didn't matter and I was determined to not let it be so.

I drank a Boost and headed out again. As I watched the sun rise over the fog laden hills I was very happy to be finally running in this final installment of my Potentially Painful Summer (PPS). I ran alone, thinking about that moment that I decided to do these runs and what I was hoping to accomplish. For today I would enjoy simply putting one foot in front of the other. As I ran through Keene I got excited that I didn't have to take that left turn onto Route 9 to run the 50 miles of boringness into Concord. Instead I stayed strait and knew that I was only about 5 miles from seeing the family for the first time today. When I got into Marlboro, around mile 20 it was a little before 9am. I was just starting to worry that I would be there before Amy would because I told here it would be at least 9 before I got there. Luckily she had just got there and was ready for the hand off. i was starting to get tired, but also excited for this section. This is where the real back roads started. The sun was now coming up, the leaves were bursting with color and I was starting to explore a part of NH that I had never seen.

Support wagon

It was only 20 miles in and already a big concern had popped up. My right ankle/shin was starting to hurt. It was the same tightness that eventually stopped me on the two previous runs. My body must just hate running on pavement. I had been wearing my Altra Instinct Shoes which fit perfect and felt great, but I decided that since I had about a billion different pairs of shoes with me, I might was well try something different. I put on my new Brooks Pure Grits, which I had been running in the previous week. Although they are off road shoes, the sole has a nice cushioned feel and they were great on pavement. Right away the pain decreased. I did my best to just not think about it and enjoy my surroundings. There was no point in worrying about what might happen later in the day. My goal was to stay in the moment as best as I could and just see what comes my way.

As I was walking up a steep dirt road I pulled out my phone to take a picture. I had brought my camera, but I had left the memory card in my computer. As I snapped a pic, John texted me from Colorado to see how I was doing. I sent him the picture of the beautiful back road and felt very happy to be traveling this route.

At one of the stops Amy had taken the memory card from her camera and
put it in the one I was carrying. I started taking pictures as I passed through Harrisville.

Amy continued on as Adam had with supporting me every 4 or 5 miles. I remember asking her to go a little bit shorter distance because my ankle was already hurting and I wanted to make sure that I could work on it if things got worse. At 10:35am I had traveled 28 miles. I hit the 50k (31 miles) at 6 hours 15 minutes into the day. Considering that I was taking lengthy stops to eat and just chat with the family I felt like I was moving along just fine. I was enjoying being alone on the back roads of NH enjoying the day. It sounds corny, but I was very grateful to be alive and in good health.

At 35 miles I was heading through Hancock NH. I posted on twitter that I was slowing down a bit and my shin was sore. The good news was that it was staying at the same level of pain and wasn't getting worse. Amy fed me turkey/avocado wrap which was delicious and kept my spirits up by reminding me to not worry about my shin and just stay in the moment. Many of the roads ran along streams and there was almost zero traffic in these areas.

Even though the pavement was taking it's toll already, I still found many things to keep my mind occupied. I laughed out loud at this witch whom had run into a tree.

In all the years I've lived in NH I've never seen a sign like these:

Are there really that many bobcats in NH that there is an entire sanctuary dedicated to them? I had no idea! The signs scared Izzy and she was on the lookout for big game when she drove through the area. Of course, no tour of NH would be complete without a covered bridge. This one is in Greenfield, about 40 miles into the run.

As I toddled along I really was enjoying the scenery. It was so nice just going out for an all day (and night hopefully) run with friends and family along to cheer me and support me. There was no pressure like at a 100 mile race. I had purposely blown off all the publicity that was available. A group of radio stations had wanted to follow me across the state and give live updates on where I was all weekend. Months ago the plan had been to do it as a fundraiser, but by the time the last few weeks had rolled around I didn't think that we could do it and raise a substantial amount of money. So instead I just decided to run for me. And now I had all the time in the world, which felt incredible. As I ran I took more pictures.

There were many houses with big fields and ponds in beautiful settings. Someday I am going to live in a location like this.

I hit the 44 mile mark at 2:17pm and tweeted that my shin was achy, but the scenery was beautiful. At 4:20 I posted that I was in New Boston, 52 miles in and that "I hate pavement". My mood was turning a bit as I was getting frustrated with my shin. I was also succumbing to my natural tendencies to worry about time. 11 hours to go 50 miles is very slow to me. And even though it wasn't that long ago that I was not concerned about time, now it bugged me that I was traveling so slowly. Sometimes being "Type A" isn't a good thing when it comes to endurance running.

But I was getting close to the point where Amy and the kids would hand me off to Team Robert. As a ran along a particularity sucky section of Route 13 (almost no shoulder and lots of traffic), I was shaken out of my funk by my friend Ron and Meredith who pulled over, jumped out of the car and ran at me with a brown paper bag!

I had posted on Facebook a couple nights earlier that I was really craving a Greek Gyro sandwich and it kind of turned into a bit joke. Of course, they had brought me a Gyro. Although I wasn't sure it was the best idea I ate the entire thing. It was completely delicious. I was sure it was going to make me shit my pants later, but I really didn't care. This was the kind of thing that made the day so fun. So, at mile 57 I ate supper by the side of the road.

I wonder if GU will come out with a lamb and feta cheese flavor...

Three miles later at 6:02 I was at the beginning of the Goffstown rail trail where Josh, Leah, Loni and Grant. Amy had been awesome and she kept my spirits up all day. It never escapes me how much she does for me and how supportive my family is. I am very thankful for them. So it was now 13 hours into my run, the sun is starting to fade and I've gone 60 miles. Oh yeah, and my shin really hurts....

About Me

My name is Nathan Sanel and I own National Powersports Distributors. I have a wonderful family with my wife Amy and my two children. Outside of my family, my life is full of passion for motorcycles, business, and long distance running.